[340-354] Chernyshevsky looked upon contemporary Russian society with extreme pessimism; he saw in it neither the striving for decisive struggle nor the forces capable of carrying that struggle through to the end. "To remake the life of Russian society according to our convictions! — says the hero of the story 'A Quiet Voice': — in youth it is natural to think of all sorts of chimeras. But at my age it would be shameful to retain such naiveté... I have long since come of age, long since seen in what sort of society I live, what country, what nation's son I am. To concern myself with the application of my convictions to its life would mean toiling to instill into the will my notions of the yoke"*. It seemed to him that he was living in an epoch of "hopeless lethargy of society"**...

Levitsky thus conveyed the impression from conversations with Chernyshevsky***.

From what he said, much seemed too gloomy, too hopeless. His words aroused in the listener profound contempt for the present and for any activity in the present. A sincere democrat need not get worked up because all our social affairs are trifles and nonsense. Our society engages in nothing but trivialities. Now*, for example, it is worked up exclusively over the abolition of serfdom. What is serfdom? A trifle. In America slavery is no trifle: the difference between the rights and well-being of the black worker in the southern states and the white worker in the northern states is immeasurably great; to equalize the slave with the northern worker is a great benefit. Ours is different. Are free peasants living much better than the enserfed? Is their social standing much higher? The difference is so microscopic that it is not even worth speaking of. The abolition of serfdom is a trifle, if the land remains in the possession of the nobility. From the reform one hundredth part of the peasants will gain, the rest can only lose. Essentially, all this is trifles and nonsense. All nonsense compared to the general character of the national system. Suppose this partial reform is carried out. What comes next on the agenda? Trial by jury? "Also an important thing, when it is not under the influence of such a general national system, in which no judicial forms can act much worse than trial by jury." Two trifles — that is the whole program of the concerns and raptures of Russian society for quite a long time, if nothing special happens; and nothing special is foreseen for now...

Levitsky (Dobrolyubov) could not agree with these gloomy conclusions of Volgin (Chernyshevsky), though during their conversations he fell under the mighty influence of this enormous and consistent mind. He recognizes Volgin as a man devoted with all his soul to the people's interests, but he also clearly sees his shortcomings: he does not believe in the people...

We cite from this profoundly interesting diary (let us not forget, written by Chernyshevsky himself) one more conversation, characteristic of Chernyshevsky's mood at that time (the second half of the 1850s). Living in a remote province, Levitsky recalls conversations with his teacher. "St. Petersburg in my head, journalism, our liberals and Volgin, with listless mockery saying: 'Ah, you! — Well, what sort of beer will you brew with this rabble?' And you object to Volgin: 'When, where, has society not been a crowd of rabble? And yet honest people have always and everywhere worked.' — 'Naturally, out of stupidity; everywhere and always intelligent people have been stupid, Vladimir Alexeyevich. What pleasure is there in belaboring water? —

* i.e., in the late 1850s.

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